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Belgium to press ahead with anti-terror laws

Xinhua, January 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Belgian interior minister said on Friday that the country would push ahead with revisions to existing anti-terror legislation.

The announcement came as the judge in the country's biggest terrorist case in Belgium's history announced that the verdict of that ongoing trial would now be postponed until Feb. 11.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon made the statement at a cabinet meeting on Friday, as tension continued in France following the Wednesday murder of 10 journalists and two police officers at the headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

In Belgium, the government is to push ahead with new measures to combat radicalisation and terrorism, the minister said on Friday.

It had been expected that any changes to the law would be made in relation to the verdict in the trial of the radical Islamic group, Sharia4Belgium which saw 46 men accused of plotting terrorist activities.

A spokesman for the prosecuting magistrate, Christian Denoyelle, denied on Friday that the timing had anything to do with the events unfolding in Paris.

"This is an important issue and the court simply needs more time. There is nothing exceptional," he said.

Jan Jambon told the Belgian cabinet on Friday that he would still press ahead with anti-terrorist legislation, despite the delay in the Antwerp trial, and would be submitting proposals to the government in the coming weeks, Flemish news agency De Standaard reported. Endit